This story has been updated with Mark Cuban’s reply.
Mark Cuban was evidently one of the millions of Americans who watched Donald Trump “humbly and gratefully accept” the Republican nomination for the presidency of the United States. And he clearly didn’t like it.
The tech billionaire, Dallas Mavericks owner, and Shark Tank investor has long had a contentious take on the Republican presidential nominee. The high point of their relationship, if one can call it that, came when he told Michael Wolf during a segment of Wolf’s NextMarket podcast that he’d be open to being VP to either Clinton or Trump (though that was mainly to note that having an independent vice president might not be a terrible idea).
“The goal isn’t to say, ‘Hey, I’m a Republican’ or ‘I’m a Democrat,’” Cuban said during the podcast. “The goal is: How are we going to help this country? Maybe it’s time to have an independent vice president who can cross the aisle, communicate, and not be driven by dogma.”
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Other than that, though, Cuban has been less than positive in his comments on the Republican nominee, savaging him on Twitter and suggesting to Bloomberg that Trump was getting less smart as the campaign went on. In a June interview with Fortune‘s Dan Primack, Cuban said that Trump had even contacted him about his comments (billionaire to billionaire, if you will).
“Yes, directly. To ask me why I have gone far more negative. I won’t tell you what I said,” Cuban said.
But with the arrival of the GOP convention in Cleveland, his words grew very pointed.
https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/755287070894022657
And in an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday, Cuban—in his own words—”took the gloves off.” Doing his best impression of a hip hop MC, he rapped Trump-angled burns over a beat in front of the live audience. Among other disses, Cuban reminded Trump that “to be a billionaire, you have to have the ‘billion’ part in your bank account, not just the ‘air’”—a reference to reports that Trump inflates his net worth. He also said to Trump, “Your companies fail so often, you must have gone to business school at Trump University.”
Cuban’s commentary reached a fever pitch during Trump’s speech Thursday night, when he unleashed a tweetstorm of irritation and mockery—both political and personal. He even retweeted a Bernie Sanders tweet saying that Trump had “made bigotry and divisiveness the cornerstone of his campaign.”
Here are some of the most piquant:
https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/756315176685543424
https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/756318143945900032
https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/756319724380631042
https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/756321140050530304
https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/756326490988355584
https://twitter.com/mcuban/status/756332262665228289
When asked Friday morning if he had anything to add to his Twitter commentary, Cuban’s answer was simple:
“Nope,” he wrote in email. “Pretty much says it all.”
